Thursday, January 17, 2008

Crooks stealing big screen TVs from dealers and manufacturers

Most RVs in the USA are manufactured in Elkhart County, Indiana. Well, it seems that thieves have figured out that many of these RVs are easy pickings for them. And what they are stealing are expensive flat screen TVs. Earlier this month, in one weekend, 25 were stolen from one manufacturer. The Elkhart Truth newspaper reports that the thefts are increasing.

In December three RV dealers or manufacturers had break-ins, with 60 TVs stolen. So far this month, police have responded to four locations where at least one TV was taken. In one instance 14 were taken from one business.

“Flat screens are definitely an item,” said RV dealer Todd Cornell, who has experienced TV burglaries at his facility. “When the manufacturers switched to the flat panel TVs, there was a dramatic increase associated with that."

In the past year, Cornell's dealership added more fences and gates around the business. Also, the company now removes all electronics from outdoor display units and only puts them back when the RVs are sold. Cornell is also considering installing a 24-hour surveillance system.

With this going on they will have to raise prices (the consumer always ends up paying for it) also the slow down in the business they will have to just pass it on. Only other way would be to have there dealers put them in,threw a subcontractor, at a larger profit margin for the dealer and a little less for them.

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